Back in the mountains

For the first time since this summer I went hiking in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, near my home in Reno. It was nice to get out in nature once again after such a long absence of outdoor activity. Holly and I took Chester to the Davis Creek Park end of Ophir Creek Trail, just south of Reno. We had a nice hike up to a small alpine lake, which we had all to ourselves.

In other news Holly and I got ski passes to Northstar-at-Tahoe this year. Being lower in elevation than the other ski areas means that it tends to get less snow, so it is sort of a gamble. However, I wanted to try something a little different this year, and the pass also includes access to the cross-country ski trails as well as the downhill ski lifts.

Successful thesis defense

Last week I defended my master's thesis, which included a public presentation of my research. Fortunately, things went well, and there were no hiccups. The title of my thesis was "Morphometric characterization of artificial post-mining landforms and natural landforms using a Geographic Information System", which is quite a mouthful. However, the premise is fairly easy to understand. Gold mining in Nevada produces large landforms, hills really. The goal of the thesis was to use GIS to determine how artificially-produced terrain differs from natural terrain, in other words, to quantify the shape and form of landforms. I've got a few minor revisions to the thesis before I submit it to the graduate school and then I'm done!